Some Deep Thinking For Week’s End

And as this week, with all its surprises, draws to a close, it would seem the blogosphere’s got its collective thinking hat on.

Yep, to round out the week, here are four Deep Thought pieces on everything from morality to just why gnomes can’t play druids…

• Tzufit at Tree Heals Go Whoosh is examining an old question – why exactly can’t we choose any class, irrespective of race, in WoW? – “Is a night elf capable of becoming a warlock? Absolutely. Would they have the same in-game experience that every other night elf in the game has? Not a chance.”
• Spinks considers the issue of enforcing morality in-game, and asks if most players would cheerfully commit in-game necrophilia if there was a buff in it – “The way in which the gaming brain makes decisions is not usually around morality so much as min-maxing, high scores, or winning the game. Maybe there is some power fantasy in there as well, especially in immersive settings.”
• Keen and Graev sit down to consider their immersion problems with modern MMOs, and finds that lack of ignorance is the opposite of bliss – “Not only was it easier to be immersed in a game when I felt completely lost and overwhelmed, and turning to anyone with knowledge for help, but when everyone else around me was just as lost and clueless it created a special atmosphere of players all striving to come together. No one knew what to expect. “
• And Syncaine also considers the immersion issue, conlcuding that modern-day MMOs are far more similar to each other than their ancestors – “in the days of the big three, immersion worked not only because no one really knew this MMO thing, but because each game had little in common with the other two. Simply put UO did not play or work like EQ1 in any way, and what AC-DT was doing was also completely different.”

I’m not certain on the morality issue. I know that I’ve gotten very irritated with WoW a few times when characters I’m playing – particularly my explicitly Good characters – have been unable to skip or find a way around the torture-related quests, for example. But I know I’m in a minority in this – and my reading of other peoples’ description of Skyrim play, as well, suggests that many players spend less time agonising over the morality of some of their actions than I have been known to…

Any Deep Thinky Responses to these Deep Thoughts?

If you enjoyed this article, check out our other posts from these categories: General MMO Interest,World of Warcraft